It is well known in the metallizing art to electrodeposit, also referred to as electrolytic deposition and electroplating, cobalt-hardened gold coatings on substrates. In conventional procedures a deposition bath comprising ions of metal to be deposited and a suitable electrolyte is provided, the article or object to be plated is immersed in or otherwise contacted with the bath while connected as the cathode to an external current source, and a metal electrode is connected as the anode to the same current source. During electroplating operations ions of the metal to be deposited are reduced in the bath to zero valent metal which plates out on the workpiece or substrate surface.
The use of cobalt to harden gold coatings is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,905,601 which will be discussed below in greater detail.
It has been found, however, that such conventional cobalt-hardened gold coatings do not have the high degree of corrosion resistance which is an important property for some commercial purposes. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a system or process for preparing special cobalt-hardened, gold electrodeposits with markedly improved corrosion resistance and cosmetic appearance such as brightness, smoothness. In some instances it has been possible to achieve such desirable results at substantially reduced thicknesses of metal.